Author(s): Zena Hitz

Philosophy

An invitation to readers from every walk of life to rediscover the impractical splendours of a life of learning.
In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a birdwatcher, or someone who takes a deep interest in one of countless other subjects.

Drawing on inspiring examples, from Socrates and Augustine to Malcolm X and Elena Ferrante, and from films to Hitz's own experiences as someone who walked away from elite university life in search of greater fulfillment, Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought. Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics in particular to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake, and calls on universities to return to the person-to-person transmission of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us.

Reminding us of who we once were and who we might become, Lost in Thought is a moving account of why renewing our inner lives is fundamental to preserving our humanity.

Review: 
"[In Lost in Thought] Hitz is asking the right questions. . . . The question at its heart is disarmingly simple and deeply engaging: What should we do with ourselves."---Jonathan Marks, Wall Street Journal
"[Lost in Thought] proved a salutary reminder for me, and may for other readers as well, that we should try to make at least a little space . . . for the contemplative learning that drew us into the life of the mind."---James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Education 
"Zena Hitz's Lost in Thought offers a passionate and powerful defense of pure intellectualism and the intrinsic value of the intellectual life."---Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed
"An inspirational attestation of the ability of intellectual activity to dignify oppressed lives. . . . Much of this book is beautiful."---Sophie Duncan, Literary Review
"Hitz's memoir is profoundly affecting as she describes how academic life made her lose her love of learning before, finally, she found a meaningful path."---Joe Humphreys, Irish Times
"Compelling. . . . you'll probably walk away from this book, as I did, feeling that your inner life has been enlarged."---Roosevelt Montas, Wall Street Journal
"Lost in Thought [is] a persuasive defense of learning and intellectual life . . . Hitz's breadth of knowledge is on display."---Aurelian Craiutu, Los Angeles Review of Books
"[Lost in Thought is] full of wonder, full of the joyful smiles of somebody who's been saved, or saved herself, from empty toils of ledger-sheet learning. In her good-natured way, Hitz chastises the increasing commodification of intellectual endeavor. . . . This is a book to savor in your quietest reading nook. Which is very much the point."---Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review

Author Biography: Zena Hitz is a Tutor in the great books program at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, where she also lives. She has a PhD in ancient philosophy from Princeton University and studies and teaches across the liberal arts.